Chronology of Russian
Revolution
Sources: Fitzpatrick, The Russian Revolution 1917-1932; Hill, Lenin and the Russian Revolution; Mason, Revolutionary Europe 1789-1989; Goldstone, Revolutions, Wilde, The Russian Revolutions – a timeline
1825 3000 Russian soldiers led by army officers revolt against Imperial Russia, known as the Decembrist Revolt
1848-1870 Herzen’s ideas blend
Western Socialism with traditional peasant communes of
1861-1864 Peasant emancipation, Disappointment with emancipation leads to peasant violence and unrest
1866-1870 White terror after attempt on Tsar
1868 Tsar Nicholas II born
1870
1879
1881 Tsar Alexander II is assassinated
1894 Tsar Alexander III dies, Nicholas II assumes the throne
1895 Lenin is arrested and held for a year, then exiled to
1897 Lenin is given three-year exile
1898 Russian Social Democratic Labor Party is founded in
1901-1905 Economic downturn creates discontent
1902-1907 Peasant unrest as continuing response to injustices of emancipation
1904 Russo-Japanese war begins
1905 January Bloody Sunday - Tsarist troops open fire on a
peaceful demonstration of workers in
1905 October General Strike sweeps
1905 December In response to the suppression of the St Petersburg Soviet the Moscow Soviet organises a disastrous insurrection that the government suppresses after five days
1906 The promised parliament, the Duma, is dissolved when it produces an anti government majority even though elected on a narrow franchise.
1911-1914 A new wave of workers unrest ends with the outbreak of the First World War
1917 Feb After several days of demonstrations in
1917 March 12th Abolition of the death Penalty
1917 April 18th Milyukov note. Milyukov tells allies that war aims unchanged.
1917 April 20 - 21 The April Days. Opposition to the Foreign Minister Milyukov boils over due to his refusal to renounce annexations.
1917 May Milyukov resigns. Members of the Mensheviks and the Socialist Revolutionaries join the government.
1917 June 3 First All-
1917 June 18 Offensive launched by
1917 July The July Days. (3rd and 4th) Workers and
soldiers in
1917 July 12th Death Penalty reintroduced for the front.
1917 Aug The Kornilov putsch. An attempt by General Kornilov to establish a right wing dictatorship is a disastrous flop. Chernov the leader of the Socialist Revolutionaries resigns from the government denouncing Kerensky for complicity in the plot.
1917 Sept The Bolsheviks win control of the
Petrograd Soviet.
In the countryside peasant seizure of land from the gentry continues and
reaches the level of near insurrection in
1917 Oct The Bolsheviks overthrow the Provisional government on the eve of the meeting of 2nd All-Russia Congress of Soviets.
1917 26/27 Oct Soviet proclamations on land and peace. Death Penalty abolished.
1917 30 Oct Kerensky repulsed outside
1917 2 Nov Bolsheviks gain
1917 7th Nov
1917 Nov 12-14 Elections to the Constituent Assembly. Socialist Revolutionaries the largest party.
1917 12 Dec Left-SRs join Sovnarkom
1917 Dec (early) Congress of Socialist Revolutionaries results in victory for the left under Chernov. Likewise Menshevik Congress gives victory to Martov's Menshevik internationalists.
1918 Jan 5th The Constituent Assembly in which the Bolsheviks are a minority meets for one day before being suppressed. Earlier that day a demonstration is fired on by Bolshevik units and several demonstrators are killed
1918 10-18 Jan 3rd Soviet Congress
1918 Jan 28th Trotsky denounces the German Peace Terms as unacceptable and walks out of the peace negotiations at Brest- Litovsk.
1918 Feb 1/14
1918 Feb 18th The Germans invade
1918 March The Bolsheviks accept the dictated peace of Brest-Litovsk. The Left SRs denounce the peace and leave the government.
1918 April 12th
1918 May 9th Bolshevik troops open fire on workers protesting at food
shortages in the town of
1918 May (late) The Czechoslovak legion mutinies against the Bolshevik
government. Using the railways they are able to sweep away Bolshevik control
from vast areas of
1918 July Fifth Soviet Congress. The left SRs assassinate the German ambassador and are in turn crushed by the Bolsheviks.
1918 16 July
1918 23rd Aug 3 ministers of the Siberian Government are arrested by
supporter of Mikhailov, the finance Minister, when
they arrive in
1918 22nd Sept Siberian Oblast Duma dismisses Mikhailov and is itself dispersed by Mikhailov
1918 18th November Kolchak, stages a coup against
the Directory, the multi party government in
1918 Dec Perm falls to Kolchak's Whites
1919 Jan Mensheviks legalised and allowed to
publish Vsegda Vpered in
1919 25 Feb The Cheka closes down Vsegda Vpered. This marks a return to despotic rule by Bolsheviks.
1919 White Armies attack the Bolsheviks from all directions but the Red Army is finally victorious.
1920 25 Apr
1920 19th Aug Start of peasant insurrection in
1920 14 Nov. Last White army under Wrangel evacuates the
1921 Peasant unrest sweeps
1921 1-17 Mar The old Bolshevik stronghold of Kronstadt rises demanding free election to the Soviets but is suppressed.
1921 May
1924 Lenin dies. Trotsky is defeated by a triumvirate of Stalin, Kamenev and Zinoviev. Though Stalin stays in the background it is he who is the real power as the other two will shortly discover.